For me, this past year has been a year of learning and listening and living the practice. I’ve done a lot of reading.
The first stack is the books I read with the Buddhism Today Reading Group.
January
The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer.
February
Mountains and Rivers Sutra: Teachings by Norman Fischer transcribed and edited by Kuya Minogue.
March
Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society by Thich Nhat Hanh.
April
Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care edited by Nathan Jishin Michon.
May
The Buddhist and the Ethicist: Conversations on Effective Altruism, Engaged Buddhism, and How to Build a Better World by Peter Singer and Shih Chao-Hwei.
June
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön.
July
The Free Mind: Finding Clarity in a Digitally Distracted World by Dza Kilung Rinpoche.
August
Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity & Love by Oren Jay Sofer.
September
Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method by Rebecca Li.
November
The Poetry of Grief, Gratitude, and Reverence edited by John Brehm.
My favorite books of this stack were Refuge in the Storm, a book about Buddhist health care and chaplaincy by various authors, and Illumination, a look at the core teachings of Chan (Zen) Buddhism.
The second stack is the books that are part of my “Cutting In” reading project based on the Shobogenzo. The other books are primarily commentaries expounding upon various fascicles (essays) found therein.
- Treasury of the True Dharma Eye edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
- Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki edited by Shohaku Okumura.
- Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Uji by Shinshu Roberts.
- Mountains and Rivers Sutra: Teachings by Norman Fischer transcribed and edited by Kuya Minogue.
- Realizing Genjokoan: The Key to Dogen's Shobogenzo translated and commentated by Shohaku Okumura.
- How to Raise an Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Master Dogen's Shobogenzo by Francis Dojun Cook.
- Shōbōgenzō: Zen Essays by Dōgen translated by Thomas Cleary.
- Receiving the Marrow: Teachings on Dogen by Soto Zen Women Priests edited by Eido Frances Carney.
- Master Dōgen's Zazen Meditation Handbook: A Translation of Eihei Dōgen's Bendōwa with commentary by Zen Master Kōshō Uchiyama Roshi, translated by Shohaku Okumura and Taigen Daniel Leighton.
It’s been a challenging and compelling time of exploration, examination, and reflection.
The third stack is the “other” Buddhist books I’ve been reading in between the other two stacks.
- The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women edited by Florence Caplow and Susan Moon.
- Becoming Yourself: Teachings on the Zen Way of Life by Shunryu Suzuki.
- Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki.
- Taking the Path of Zen by Robert Aitken.
- The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics by Robert Aitken.
- Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
The Hidden Lamp is the most interesting of this stack because my South Sound Zen sangha is reading and discussing the various koans and accompanying commentaries together. Each week, I get to discover how much I missed in my reading and/or the insights and discoveries of my fellow readers.
